Estimation of the Source Signal Characteristics and Variability of Blue Whale Calls Using a Towed Array.

• Main Author: Moore, Therese C.
• Other Authors: NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Acoustic Detection and Detectors; *TOWED ARRAYS; *SIGNALS; *ACOUSTIC ARRAYS; *WHALES; SOURCES; POSITION(LOCATION); MONITORING; TRACKING; THESES; ESTIMATES; HYDROPHONES; OBSERVATORIES; RESEARCH SHIPS; MBNMS(MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY); OAO(OCEAN ACOUSTIC OBSERVATORY); Blue whale
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA366864; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA366864

A four-day experiment was conducted to study the feasibility of locating, tracking, and counting blue whales acoustically in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) at long ranges using the shore-based NPS Ocean Acoustic Observatory (OAO) hydrophone array. In concert with the shore-based acoustic monitoring, an aircraft was assigned to locate whales and a research vessel was manned with observers and instrumented with a towed hydrophone array to determine whale locations and characterize their vocalizations in the near-field. Two transiting blue whales were observed and their vocalizations were recorded by the towed array in close proximity. In this thesis research, these towed array data were deverberated using modeled-based matched signal processing and least-squares fitting.